(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Washington, July 09 (QNA) - The Dallas gunman who opened fire Thursday night in Dallas in an attack on police officers has been identified by police as a 25-year-old US Army Reserve element Micah X. Johnson.
Johnson, served in the Army Reserve from March 2009 to April 2015 as a carpentry and masonry specialist.
He told cops during four hours of failed negotiations that he had acted alone and was not affiliated with any group. (QNA)
Demonstrations Against Killing African-Americans Continue in US
Washington, July 9 (QNA) - Demonstrations across US continued on Saturday against the killings this week of non-threatening African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota and of dozens of other black citizens in the past few years.
Just hours before the murders in Dallas, US President Barack Obama made a speech decrying the killing of the apparently innocent black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. He was forced again to make a second statement during his appearance at a NATO summit in Warsaw to condemn the killing of the police.
"Let’s be clear: There are no possible justifications for these attacks or any violence towards law enforcement," he told reporters in the Polish capital. Obama said that he would cut short his stay in Poland and visit Dallas at the invitation of the city''s mayor.
Police in the American city of Dallas on Saturday now say that a single sniper opened fire on police officers on Friday killing five and wounding seven others in retaliation for a recent spate of police killings of African-American men around the country.
The authorities had initially reported as many as three snipers firing on police from three different angles as a protest march against the police killings was coming to an end three blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was also killed by sniper fire in 1963.
After a three-hour standoff in a parking garage with the lone gunmen, which included an exchange of fire, a police robot was sent in with an explosive which was detonated, killing the suspect.
He was identified as 25-year old Micah Johnson, of Dallas, who had served in the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Police say that Johnson revealed his motive during their negotiations with him during the standoff.
"He said he was upset about the recent police shootings," said Dallas police chief David Brown. "The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers." (QNA)